Is the Far-Right Anti-Science? Hierarchies, Metapolitics and Struggles for Epistemic Authority

The right-wing actors are widely described as being anti-science. However, while the far-right often rejects science outright when it conflicts with their ideological, economic, or cultural priorities (e.g. anti-vax, climate change denial, creationism in schools), it also embraces science when it aligns with its worldview or political agenda, (e.g. nuclear power, space exploration, military technology). In between is the messier space in which the far right engage with and appropriate science to justify sexist, ethnonationalist, or exclusionary beliefs (e.g. genetics, IQ studies, evolutionary psychology). This paper examines such cases, exploring how the far-right engages in an epistemic struggle to lay claim to the ‘science’ of race and gender, simultaneously attacking and co-opting scientific authority to legitimise white supremacy and patriarchy.